Snively waited in the cyberspace of the Eggnet for his master to reply.
"This is no doing of yours?" the Eggman asked.
The two stood in a featureless grid. Four giant spheres slowly orbited them high above. Here, in the Eggnet, their digital avatars were simply themselves. There was no point in pretense, and none of the other Underbosses were present except for a few cadres of Tails Dolls, represented by featureless numbered blocks. Snively rather missed the days when the Eggnet hummed with activity, like in the Empire's heyday. Above all else, he missed Regina... but that was then; this was now.
"No, sir," Snively replied. "A coincidence?"
"The Princess has always been a hardy one. It is hard to imagine her coming down with something and you feeling fit as a fiddle..." The good doctor chuckled at his nephew's expense. Snively bit back a retort about certain overweight men not looking much healthier.
"Something she ate, then?" Snively shrugged, not really caring anymore. "Either way, it isn't my doing. I do have a neurotoxin prepared for the end of the conference, the binary one we discussed, but I never got around to introducing either of the compounds yet."
"Hmm." Robotnik rubbed his chin and absently walked off to the side in a shallow circuit.
"Sir?"
"It may be worth thawing the R-71 out a little early, Snively. I've sent Shadow to Knothole."
The tiny man's eyebrows raised at that. "But why? Won't that cause us trouble?"
Eggman nodded in agreement. "Yes, but some new information had come to my attention. All of it has checked out so far."
"New information?"
"Most of it is little stuff... nothing of consequence. But there were some schematics on the Knothole shield and the location of the Amethyst Chaos Emerald. If it pans out, we'll be able to get Helios off the ground in a few hours."
Snively thought about that: it was good news. But...
"What if its a trick? You know how that black rat works! He'll leave a trail of bodies in his wake! It'll make this whole conference implode."
Eggman pointed up at the sky as he replied, "That's exactly right. But the latest reports from the East are very promising. This little conference has already given us enough time to push back those GUN Remnants and rebuild most of the damage we've suffered over the last two months. Even in a worst case scenario, we'll be able to get Helios up and running in four days. With GUN in full retreat, holding off those Mobians for less than a week will be child's play."
"If you think so, sir," Snively said, not entirely convinced himself. But he had always been more caution-minded than his benefactor and uncle. "So, I should release the toxin at the first opportunity?"
Eggman nodded as he paced, clearly still thinking over the situation.
"That... will be a little harder now," Snively added, with a hint of trepidation. "The Princess isn't making any public appearances due to her condition, and I don't think I can get anyone near her as long as she's in seclusion. The Prince is spending his time near her as well. Its... its an unfortunate coincidence."
"Do what you can, Snively. If the opportunity slips by... well, its a shame, but these things happen. More importantly," he said, turning to gesture at the little man. "If Shadow returns with an Emerald, I want you to make your exit as quickly as possible. Return to Robotropolis. I'll need you by my side once Helios activates."
"As you say, sir," Robotnik's right hand man crisply replied. "I will make preparations immediately and await further orders."
Snively's avatar bowed and faded into a few lingering megabytes of data as he logged off. When he was gone, that data compacted and archived itself, slipping into the web of information that had been at their feet. Eggman remained longer, still carefully considering the situation.
"Network: load real time map of the Egg Armada, and last known telemetry from the Egg Carrier."
Immediately, two displays formed to his left and right, floating in the air.
The one on the left showed the ongoing running battle between the Armada and the so called 'New Navy' the humans had cobbled together. The latter was making a long strategic withdrawal across the eastern plains of Mobius Major, hundreds of miles from Robotropolis itself. Progress was good on that front.
Things were going less smoothly around the Egg Carrier. The Eggnet communications satellite had been knocked out a short time ago and seismic sensors indicated that the humans had likely resorted to using tactical nuclear weapons. Probably some old N2 Mines from back in the Black Arms War. Hopefully, the Egg Carrier itself wasn't too badly damaged.
That cursed blue hedgehog and his annoying sidekick had managed to knock the great airship out of the sky months ago, much to Robotnick's disgust and rage. While a relatively small investment in resources compared to the Helios project, the Egg Carrier had been the flagship of the Armada and a fine craft. Unfortunately, like all his earlier airships, it had proven vulnerable to direct assault by super powered rodents. First the Wing Fortress, then the Flying Battery, then the Egg Carrier. It was a depressing track record. Helios, thankfully, would correct that vulnerability once and for all.
Still: the ship wasn't badly damaged. It could easily be patched up once that area was secure. Metal had plenty of time and resources to finish repatriating it. Eggman was confident it would be back in the air and flying alongside Helios and the Armada by the end of the week at the most. He keyed up another display, and noted that the satellite he'd moved to cover the battlefield wasn't there yet.
"Another hour or so," he murmured.
Seventy three minutes and five seconds, actually.
Filing that window away for later with two fingers, he focused on another satellite view of the area where Knothole was suspected to be. As always, it was impossible to tell much of anything with the city's cloaking field operational. But, if Shadow's information was correct, then that shield would be coming down very shortly. It wasn't something he'd be able to see in person, but watching Knothole finally expose itself to the world via satellite was just as good.
It would be something to remember when he burned the city to the ground.
They appeared over a thousand feet in the air, for what felt like the tenth time. Like every other time, Rouge flexed her wings to keep from free falling. Shadow merely hovered in place, his rocket assisted shoes keeping him in place. Rouge had been a passenger in Chaos Control mediated teleportation before, and never found it a particularly amusing experience. It wasn't painful, but it was immensely disorienting given how abruptly Shadow used it.
Below them, the think forest canopy took on a distinctly metallic sheen.
"There!" she pointed, straight down. They were so close to the City Shield that they could see the imperfections in the illusion. By her estimate, they were perhaps a hundred feet from its surface... a surface they did not want to interact with physically.
"Hold on," Shadow helpfully provided some bare modicum of warning. "I'm moving us half the distance to ground level."
Rouge quickly grabbed his arm, and a second later they warped down beneath the shield. They appeared directly over a busy intersection. A dozen faces turned to stare up at the spectacle of the two Mobians hovering in midair. Shadow paid them about as much heed as one would at being gawked at by ants. He slowly looked around, getting a bearing on his location.
He warped again, without warning this time, taking Rouge along for the ride. This time he free fell to the floor. Ahead of them loomed a fortified security complex. Holding the topaz Chaos Emerald in one hand, Shadow took in the layout and the area. He also took bland notice of the hundred or so armed guards who all but surrounded them.
A whole platoon of them even happened to be standing nearby.
For a few long seconds, everyone stared. Then one of them recognized Shadow, recognized the situation, and pulled his sidearm.
"Freeze!" the mobian's lone voice broke the silence.
In moments, dozens of other guards were reaching for their weapons.
Rouge cursed to herself, and jumped for cover to try and present a harder target. Tails had warned her about this, in case she did get dragged along. There were no plans to make this look easy. Luckily, no one seemed to pay her much mind.
Shadow was already moving, already fighting, and already tearing people apart. He moved like a black flash or a ghost, and in his wake he left broken bodies. He was already aglow with his Emerald's Chaos Energy, dyed a deep black, and there were only a handful of individuals who could stand up to him in that state.
Automated guns opened fire on the courtyard from weapons emplacements built into the bunker and drone fighters, of the type launched by air carriers, began to fill the air. Rouge wisely snuck out of sight, quietly incapacitating a guard before he could either alert others to her presence or get himself killed by Shadow. She watched from there as the "ultimate life form" methodically tore through the Knothole Shield Defenses: first the guards, then he took to the air and blasted from drone to drone, hitting them even when they maneuvered at high speed.
Bits and pieces rained down all around the now empty courtyard.
Rouge could hear sirens in the background, and then other alarms. Subtlety was not one of Shadow's strong points. The first on the scene happened to be a van full of city guards. A black beam, almost casually delivered, turned the vehicle into a burning wreck before a single man or woman could exit it. By the time Shadow was done tearing apart the bunker defense turrets, a more cautious cordon of local guards and other military types had assembled just outside the courtyard walls.
Shadow, by now all but engulfed in a helix of dark chaos energy, walked right up to the bunker's blast doors. Slamming first one fist, and then the other, into the reinforced door, all that accumulated dark energy seemed to flare all at once. The walls around the door cracked and shattered, and with a heave the blast doors fell forward. Shadow blinked out of the way, and Rouge shielded her face as the resulting crash kicked up a cloud of pulverized concrete.
"I'd forgotten... just how insanely strong this guy was!" she thought, and saw him beckoning her to follow. She was tempted to run for it the moment he turned his back, but didn't dare take the chance. Not after seeing him do what he had just done.
They started down a long incline, a ramp of some sort, when another pair of weapons emplacements emerged from the sides of the walls. Long licks of flame emerged from the previously recessed turrets like reams of water from a fountain. Rouge turned just in time to see a force field light up behind them. Almost immediately, the room became choked with fumes.
"The force field hermetically sealed the corridor!" she realized, reaching into one of the concealed pockets in her catsuit. "The fire's sucking up all the oxygen!"
At least she was prepared for this. Fitting a lightweight O2 mask over her face, she saw Shadow shielding his body from the fire. The black hedgehog was looking around for a way to disable the trap before simply trying to blow everything up. Rouge wondered for a moment just what he'd actually do to escape... but then, there was always the possibility he could make use of a short ranged Chaos Control.
Leaving her inside.
"Shadow!" she called to him, holding up a small sphere. "EMP!"
He nodded quickly. "Hurry."
Rolling the little bomb down the incline, it exploded a second later, fizzling the force field behind the flame throwers. The turrets themselves didn't seem otherwise affected. Shadow noticed this immediately, and grabbed hold of her waist before running right into the burning conflagration. She felt them behind to spin, the hot licks of fire just barely singeing them before they were through.
Both fell forward onto their knees and looked back: the force field was back up, and the entire room was little more than an inferno. A few seconds later, as if sensing the trap no longer had anyone left to kill, it shut down. The flame turrets retracted with a muffled thump, and the force fields powered down.
Shadow dusted off his arms, staring down what was left of the ramp.
"Rouge. If we find a security terminal, can you shut down these traps?"
"I think so. If we find one."
"Good," he said, resuming a quick pace as they continued deeper into the complex. Moments into their descend, they began to hear alarm claxons and flashing red lights.
"Warning. Warning. Intruder Alert. Class Four Counterinsurgency Protocols are in Effect. Non Combat Personnel are to Report Immediately to Designated Panic Rooms. Warning. Warning..."
At the end of the ramp they encountered another force field.
This time, able to see the other side of the obstacle, Shadow simply Chaos Controlled them through. Rouge spared him a quick look, and noticed that for the first time he was looking a bit worn out. His breathing was a little rushed, and he even had a sheen of perspiration running down his temple.
"He's feeling it..." she thought. "Well, I shouldn't be surprised. Even before all this, he used Chaos Control to transport us halfway around the world. Even his stamina can't be limitless."
"Move!" he suddenly yelled, pushing her away from him. Rouge rolled with the shove, and felt a hint of a tingle along her body. "What was...?"
Then she noticed the triangular block of... ice (?!) that now protruded out of the ground where they had been standing. Shadow seemed to have caught some of it. His right hand was encased in a block of the stuff. Shaking the encapsulated arm, he looked around nervously. Quick as a strobe of light, he moved, narrowly avoiding another block of the strange material.
Rouge narrowed her eyes, and looked around the large room. It was the size of a hangar, rectangular, with a series of doors on one side and a much larger set of doors on another. She caught a bit of movement, and saw something rotate within the wall itself. A heartbeat later, Shadow flashed from one spot to another, avoiding another pillar of ice.
No: not ice.
Shadow still hadn't freed his other hand. This definitely wasn't ice. It had to be that weird polymer Tails had mentioned. This was one of the real traps in the facility, not just ones for show like before.
"Oh, they're all quite real," he had said, leaning back in a chair while explaining what she'd likely encounter. Tapping one finger against his cheek he smirked. "I take security very seriously, especially when I have an unlimited budget. Most of the stuff in there is for dealing with the more common sort of intruder or invader. Terrorists and the like."
"But," he quickly added. "There are a few special cases you should be aware of..."
This was one of them. From what Rouge remembered, those things in the walls emitted a mixture of compounds at high speed in the form of a very fine vapor spray. When the two compounds mixed at the intersection of their sprays they combined to form some sort of synthetic polymer.
"As a Chaos User myself, I know how troublesome we can be when it comes to these sorts of things," he explained, taking a moment to lift a glass of water. "You wouldn't believe how many of Eggman's traps I've seen Sonic go through! The fundamental failing is that these traps try and kill their opponent outright, which is very hard when it comes so someone like us. They also tend to be self defeating in how destructive they are. However, anyone caught in this trap will quickly find themselves running out of room to dodge. All it takes is one solid hit, and the target - be it Sonic, Shadow or myself - is done for."
Sure enough, the room was quickly becoming in-navigable.
Polymer pillars, wedges and boxes were piled high, and hiding behind one didn't help either. The substance just seemed to overlap. The room was already very large, but at the rate things were going, even Shadow would end up boxed in and engulfed within a minute... and he still hadn't freed his trapped hand. It had taken only a glancing blow from the polymer formation; Rouge could guess that anyone caught by the vapor sprays head on would be completely frozen in place.
Thankfully, she wasn't being targeted at all.
Shadow blinked next to her, breathing heavily.
"Any ideas?" he quickly asked, pulling her arm as another block formed overhead, followed by another to their left.
"Hit the things making this stuff?" she guessed. Its what she'd have tried.
"I can't get close without being sprayed," he replied, tone remarkably level and composed. "I can't feel my right arm, either. Its completely numb up past the elbow."
That settled it: Rouge really didn't want to get hit by whatever this stuff was.
"What about that Chaos Spear thing?"
"The turrets and their housings are armored with morganite. I can't damage it with chaos energy."
He tossed her to the side as a wedge shaped block of polymer solidified. Whatever computer controlled this trap was herding them into a corner. It wouldn't be long before they were overwhelmed. Physical attacks were impossible, because there were at least eight turrets in the walls, and one couldn't hit any of them without being sprayed. Chaos attacks wouldn't work either, and naturally, there wasn't anything to throw.
Ironically, a gun or a rocket or something would've...
"Explosives!" Shadow realized it at the same time she did. He grabbed her by the waist and flipped over a square block of polymer. "You have some on you, don't you?"
Without even thinking, she nodded. She _did_ carry some plastique on her for breaking open locks and doors in a pinch. Only a second alter did she realize she didn't actually have to admit that, but by then it was too late.
"Good," Shadow bluntly decided. "We don't have a lot of time. I'll get you in position. Don't bother with detonators."
Jumping and twisting and making short ranged Chaos Control jumps as necessary, he closed in on the first rotating polymer-sprayer. Rouge could see the polished sheen of its morganite armor. The substance was used in certain pieces of chaos machinery, she knew, like generators and things. It was highly resistant to chaos energy for whatever reason, but Rouge doubted it was very tough. Tossing a thumbnail sized glob of plastic explosive into one corner of the turret, she saw it stick in place.
Together, they repeated the process for another turret, and then another, and then a forth and fifth. By this point, it was becoming almost impossible avoiding touching the polymer solids. Rouge barely brushed against one and felt her left wing go completely numb. On their way to the seventh turret, a block of the stuff formed just ahead of them, and unable to dodge in time, Shadow swiped at it with his already partly encased right arm. In a second, he was covered in the stuff almost up to his shoulder.
She felt him wince, but he kept going.
Rigging the seventh and then the eighth turrets, he lit up his rocket shoes and skimmed over the almost completely encapsulated floor. with his left hand, he fired pinpoint blasts of Chaos Energy, some stronger than others, but all on target. One after another the Chaos energy set off the planted explosives, blowing the nearby vapor turrets out of their housings.
Landing carefully between a pair of ten foot tall polymer pillars, Shadow caught his breath. Rouge disentangled their limbs, and watched as he tried to move his arm. it was no good. The polymer showed no signs of reverting to a liquid or a gas, and it didn't look like even using Chaos Control could remove it. Rouge tried to move her left wing, and found that the brief contact a moment ago had still left it locally paralyzed.
"The Chaos Emerald," Shadow said, voice determined and focused as usual.
"What?" she asked, momentarily thrown.
"The Chaos Emerald. Which way is it?"
"I think..." Before she could finish, the largest door to the room opened. Long before either of them actually saw what was on the other side, Rouge had a feeling it would be nasty. That was just how things rolled when you had one "large door" and a couple smaller ones. The large door was always the unpleasant surprise.
The massive door finally slid up into the ceiling completely, revealing two large bright lights. Rouge nodded to herself. Typical.
With a heavy thud, a mechanical foot stomped out of the darkened alcove. It was followed by another heavy footfall, and another mechanical looking foot. The front of the robot quickly revealed itself, along with an armored cockpit and a lowered "face" that looked a great deal like the nose of an airplane. It took a moment for it to sink in. This was just like the transformed version of Tails' plane. It had to be.
A Cyclone-class War Machine...
"Another obstacle," Shadow growled. "This is becoming irritating."
"Shadow? Shadow is here? In tze Shield Bunker?" Antoine D'coolette felt a bit faint. "Mon Dieu! Thees ees a disaster!"
He wasn't alone; Rotor and Bunnie were also on the scene. With Sally and Sonic on Angel Island at the peace conference and Tails mysteriously out of contact on his way to a meet up with the Fleet out East, the disaster response lines of command were thrown out of their element. Everyone knew Shadow's reputation, and even the commissioned Freedom Fighters on rotated leave in Knothole were hesitant to enter the bunker complex below to try and fight him.
"Nicole says the automated defenses are holding him off for the moment, but she doesn't know how long we have," Rotor explained. "And he isn't alone."
Antoine and Bunnie stared at their friend.
"Rouge is with him..."
"Oh! Oh!" Antoine massaged his temple, muttering a few choice phrases neither of his companions cared to translate.
Rotor hung his shoulders in defeat. "We don't have a choice. If Shadow knows about the Shield..."
"We have to stop him," Bunnie finished. "I know. You sent for it?"
Rotor nodded slowly. "It'll be here any minute."
"Et? Et? Et? What ees this eet?" Antoine asked, turning towards the ruined courtyard outside the most secure building in Knothole City. "Wait! you do not mean...?"
Bunnie stood next to him, her arms crossed. "Its this or nothin' sugah."
"Non! Eet ees too dangerous!" He turned on Rotor, and then his wife. "Do you know who tze Hell ees een there? Tzat man has keeled more class-A Freedom Fighters than tze Eggman himself! You know tze order we give to recruits if tzey are to be meeting him!"
"Do not engage; flee on sight, we know," Rotor spoke up. "But we can't just sit here and wait for Sonic. There's no way he can get here in time."
"Bunnie..." Antoine appealed to her directly. "You cannot..."
"I have to try," she cut him off. "Ah'll be ok, sugah. Really."
Antoine relented, slowly, eventually. Behind them, a large black truck drove up, bearing the Royal Seal of the Kingdom. Rotor turned, nodded to the both of them, and headed over to where it parked. Together for a moment longer, husband and wife embraced. Letting the two have a couple minutes, Rotor walked up to the back of the truck.
The trailer's back door opened, and two Mobians in white lab coats stepped out.
"We ready?" Rotor asked, taking a look inside the trailer.
"Everything is set up," the first, a canine with a coat as white as his clothes replied. "I have a drip feed prepped and full containment. My staff are ready to go."
The other, a weasel with a light brown fur quickly added, "Power is at ninety percent. Highest we could get it on such short notice."
"Good. I'm going to help," Rotor announced, stepping inside.
"Yes, sir. We have a clean room in the back..."
His breathing shallow, Rotor felt his pulse quicken as he continued the operation. To his left and right, Doctors Jackson and Pack hovered, one handling the patient and the other the equipment. This was the first time any of them had done the procedure in reverse, and the situation was already presenting a nearly impossible deadline.
Carefully, Rotor directed Doctor Jackson to complete the final stage of body preparation while he got the cybernetics ready. The canine doctor deepened the cut, and Rotor heard suction noises behind the soft whiz of the hydro-scalpel. The precision instrument cleanly cut into soft Mobian flesh with a tiny high-pressure stream of saline. At the same time, it cleaned the wound area via a small vacuum in the scalpel - devouring any sectioned tissue. Rotor didn't watch the final cuts being made. He had operated on Bunnie before, but biology wasn't his specialty, or even interest. He was there to supervise and install the new cybernetics. Or rather, the old cybernetics.
Besides, he didn't need to see… her splayed open like that…
"Nurse… nurse…" he said softly, raising his voice only a fraction and holding out his hands. In seconds, a female canine came by, and delicately pulled off his surgical gloves. She then replaced them with another pair. As this happened, Rotor let his eyes wander over the array of replacements that had been prepared. Most were actually Bunnie's old military upgrades, from a year ago.
A few of the pieces were new.
He identified the more delicate looking implants. He and Tails had both worked, then and again, on Bunnie's old cybernetics. It was technically fascinating how her body was integrated with the tech, due to her botched roboticization. The actual mind-machine interfaces, the MMIs, were unique but theoretically reproducible. For a long time, she had also been one of the heavy hitters in the original Freedom Fighter group. Eventually, her expertise was better spent passing on that information rather than using it on the battlefield. She was seeing less and less combat, and after she took over the Freedom Fighter Academy she saw almost none.
However, they still kept her old gear current with the state of the art, even when it mostly just stayed in storage. For the last half year, Tails had been the only one to keep tinkering with it. Now that Rotor had a chance and an opportunity to check out that work in depth, he was a little dismayed. He recognized some of the basic architecture and design mechanics.
How had Tails gotten hold of Dark Legion technology?
Rotor wasn't sure. He wasn't sure he even wanted to know. The new limbs he knew well enough. Those were designs he had worked on, though even those showed signs of alteration. Almost a year ago, he and Tails had built two sets of upgrades for Bunnie. One was a sleeker, more cosmetic design, and the other was a more combat oriented set. At the time, Bunnie had opted for the former...
Even then, Rotor remembered seeing a small look of disapproval on Tails' face.
Later, the young fox had jokingly admitted he was a 'little jealous' that she had picked 'his' set of upgrades instead of the Tails' own. It was an odd way of looking at it. They had both contributed to both sets of upgrades, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Tails had been right. The basic design of the cosmetic upgrades were Rotor's. Tails had designed the combat upgrades later, and after asking if Rotor had any advice, they had helped each other. But really, the combat upgrades… were Tails'…
Looking at them, Rotor found he wasn't surprised. Like all of the fox's personal designs, Bunnie's new body would be functional and lethal (albeit somewhat over-engineered) and incorporating all the latest technology. Yet it would also share the flaws inherent to Tails' designs: she would be overpowered for something her size, and many of her systems were untested and experimental. Certainly, even if many of these systems had been tested individually, never had they all been tested all together.
He also seemed to have gone ahead with his obsession regarding transformations - Tails seemed to prefer making something four times as expensive, and four times as complicated, if it could only do twice the job. It was wasteful in Rotor's opinion. It was rare indeed to find Tails scale down one of his designs, making it practical rather than fanciful.
It was a big risk.
But that was also typical of Miles' engineering. He personally tested everything he made, surviving the occasional explosion, crash, fire or even electrocution. It was self-destructive, in a way, but the fox insisted on it, and only Sally had ever tried to get him to be more careful. But this was Bunnie's life…
What would be the long-term impact of what they did today?
Just then, interrupting Rotor's thoughts, he heard a plasma saw start up, followed by a steady hissing sound of Bunnie's cybernetics being detached from their mooring points. Steeling himself, he turned around, and watched as they operated. There was blood… so much blood… even if Bunnie never thought she was completely Mobian, she certainly bled enough for one. Her arms and most of her lower body had already been removed, and assistants were readying the cybernetic relays there for the next stage of adaptation. That didn't worry Rotor much. What really worried him were the extra steps being taken to reinforce the rest of her body.
"Beginning partition…" The lead doctor said, almost in a whisper, and the cutting resumed. Rotor listened carefully, and the professional mumbled under his breath, almost inaudibly, about his progress. He watched, in a mixture of mute fascination and horror, as the final stages of the operation truly began.
"Begin nutrient injection feed…"
Even though he clinically knew what they were doing…
"Feed underway…"
What had to be done…
"Brain oxygen levels stable. Looks good here. Starting procedure."
A part of him screamed…
"Deflating the lungs…"
"Removing lungs."
Screamed for them to stop!
"Isolating the heart…"
"Removing the heart…"
But.
But it was too late.
Looking at her old heart, still twitching, on an isolation tray, he felt faint. What were they doing? How could he have agreed to this? What would be left of her, when they were done with the operation? Maybe if they stopped now, maybe it wasn't too late to put everything back, to make her whole! It wasn't too late! In time, he'd figure out a way to perfect the deroboticizer, and then she could be herself again!
"Doctor."
"Doctor!"
"Doctor!!" Rotor blinked, just realizing that one of the surgeons was addressing him, obviously assuming the Mobian walrus had a degree. Of course he had none. Rotor was about to tell him to stop the procedure, to prep her for reattachment, when the crushing weight of their situation fell again on his shoulders. Everyone was looking at him now, looking for him to take them through the many cybernetics they would have to install. They all had a part to play: a responsibility to uphold.
Bunnie must have known that.
Rotor only hoped that, when all was said and done, she could forgive him for what he did this day. On the isolation tray, Bunnie's heart twitched a few more times, beating involuntarily. Rotor watched it slow, and then stop. He closed his eyes and offered her a silent prayer.
Bunnie was dead.
Bunnie Rabbot wanted to be reborn.
"Yes, right," Rotor finally said. "We have less than ten minutes. Let us finish this."
Bunnie didn't know exactly when she had opened her eyes. There was none of the normal sensation she equated with it. It was like she was a television, and someone had simply turned her on. One moment there was darkness, fleeting hints of dreams and memories, and then it all changed. Immediately, she started to blink, and felt the soft sensation of her eyelids closing soundlessly. Satisfied with their moisture, she watched as white clothed technicians, doctors and engineers milled around, checking diagnostic readouts and discussing results.
And … it was all so sharp and in perfect focus.
Focusing her eyes on a far off paper held by a Mobian at the end of the room, she found herself able to read (though not necessarily understand) the letters and numbers. Searching the room, zooming from target to target, she winced at the sudden disorientation. In a moment of panic, she wondered where she was… and that instant, in the corner of her eye, a display appeared, projected directly into her brain from cortical and spinal implants located…
She winced again, wishing she hadn't asked…
And just like that, the information was gone. Looking up at the ceiling, she tried to speak, but her mouth wasn't moving. Another moment of panic came – had something gone wrong? Was she paralyzed? Was…? A display appeared, showing sections of her body: arms, legs, head, torso… along with streams of data. Everything was displayed in green, except for a small red warning above the schematics.
- Main Power Locked -
Bunnie slowly calmed herself. Her panic was only causing an information overload. She set her sights on a nearby doctor. After a second, a target reticule appeared, and the doctor's upper body became framed in a transparent blue box. The instant she wondered who he was, the display on the side of her vision appeared again, with a rotating facial shot, and relevant information slowly scrolling below it.
She looked him over, and the targeting box shifted, from parts of his torso, to his groin, inner thighs, knees, up, pausing at his heart, elbows, wrists: all weak spots on the Mobian body. Closing her eyes, she almost groaned in confusion. This whole thing was… different. Overwhelming. Organizing her thoughts, she began to think clearly. From what she had seen, the operation had been a success. Her body was probably healing from the surgery. Aside from the immobility, nothing felt… wrong. Well, it felt a little different, but no worse than previous upgrades. There was nothing broken or ruptured, at least.
She was physically fine.
But what… what was this… information link she had…?
Cautiously opening her eyes again, she tried to control the targeting and data retrieval reflex. For a few minutes, she simply practiced holding it back, requesting more, moving and adjusting the reticule… Then, taking notice of her efforts, one of the doctors approached her with a small penlight. His mouth moved, she couldn't hear his voice. Instead his mouth became highlighted at her sudden confusion, and a line of text appeared.
~ Welcome back, Miss Rabbot. Please, follow the light with your eyes. ~
She did just that, and the doctor 'hmmed' and nodded as he examined her, moving the penlight to the left and right, up and down and around. The lead doctor – the one Bunnie remembered as Doctor Pack – turned the other doctor around and talked to him, hiding his lips behind a clipboard. They talked for a minute, attracting a few other doctors and technicians… when they separated, the diagnostic began. There was precious little time.
While it ran, and her systems underwent one last check, she learned that she had received Dark Legion implants in addition to those built by Tails and Rotor. One of them was a 'Neural Nanonic Interface,' designed to run and integrate all her new 'functions.' The way the text scrolled as they talked, sometimes from several doctors at once, confused and irritated her. Maybe it was being unable to hear… but she felt like some like of … of…
Robot
'No!' She snarled in her mind. 'NO! I'm not a robot! I'm not a robian!'
'Then why can't you move?' A voice taunted. 'Why can't you feel?'
Finally, after what seemed like a quarter hour of testing (her internal chronometer popped up and 'informed' her that it had only been two minutes), she saw a familiar face. Rotor entered the room from the far door, his eyes distant and blood shot, carrying a brown duffel bag. He walked unsteadily – more so than his usual wide shuffle – but said nothing. The other doctors were busy, and allowed him past without a word.
When he got close, he reached up and held her cheek in his wide palm. To her annoyance, she couldn't feel anything. There was only a vague sense of slight pressure being applied to her skin. No sense of hot or cold, living or dead. Turning his head, he said something, and then faced her again. It was like he was searching her face for something… a flaw, maybe? As she wondered, she saw three technicians move around and behind her.
A few seconds later, something… clicked.
- Main Power Unlocked -
A sudden explosion of voices and noises assailed her, and she shook her head in discomfort. Her long ears lowered, and her face scrunched up. It only took a few seconds to get used to the environment. Opening her eyes, she saw Rotor holding out his hand. Reaching out, first with her mechanical left, and then with her organic right, he let him help her off the vertical 'bed' she had been strapped up. Her first movements were awkward – little more than baby steps, and reacquainting herself with notions of balance and equilibrium.
"Bunnie…" Rotor struggled with his next words. "How do you feel?"
"How… do I feel?" She looked at her hands and slowly examined herself visually. The organic arm seemed the same, but as she rotated her right forearm, she saw a long metal slot or bracer running down from just behind the wrist to halfway up the forearm. The fur around it was trimmed slightly, revealing pink skin. Something… attached to it… Looking at her new mechanical arm, she began to move and rotate it, testing the range of movement.
It was surprisingly nimble.
Despite looking a little bulky, it felt light as a feather. The upper arm assembly was more complicated and heavier looking than her previous models, and she guessed that it had a lot more raw power behind it. Following it to the shoulder, she noticed that the arm assembly extended up more than before, encompassing an entire shoulder and reaching all the way to her neck. Raising the arm, she saw that it extended down to her ribcage, too. It felt sturdy… very grounded in place. The hand had strong looking fingers, with a thick knuckle guard sporting three large black spikes. The new forearm had a large metal shield-like extension, with numerous round studs. There was a small etching on it, a heart impaled on a sword.
She stared at it for a few seconds.
That was her secret tattoo.
It had been… Quick as lightning, she looked down at her waist, near the pelvis. However, instead of finding fur-covered flesh, she found metal. Like external ribs, they ran up her sides, like armor… A blush rose on her cheeks as she realized something else that hadn't previously occurred to her.
"Um… Rote, hun…" She asked, and looked down at her feet. "Could ya'll find me some clothes?"
'A blush?' Rotor wondered, seeing the change in color under the short fur of her cheeks. 'Even after all that we did to her…?'
"Uh, of course," he said, and picked up the duffel bag he'd entered with. Opening it, he shows its contents to her: an urban terrain themed camouflage bodysuit. "Change quickly. We're ground zero for the fight of our lives."
Bunnie nodded, and took the clothes. "How much time to we have? What happened?"
Just then, with superbly enhanced ears, she heard a distant crack of thunder. Rotor looked over his shoulder; he'd heard it, too.
"Not long," he replied, in a detached tone of voice. "We were running out of time, so Antoine ordered an attack on the building to buy you a couple minutes. About a hundred men went down there with him. Volunteers."
Eyes closed, Bunnie worked the bodysuit in place and hooked the belt around her waist. For a moment, Rotor could all but sense the calm before the storm.
"I want everyone to keep away from the fight. Don't come anywhere near us. I don't think..." The fingers in her mechanical hand clenched and unclenched. "I can be held responsible for any collateral damage."
Rotor nodded. "I understand."
Bunnie's light green eyes burned with an inner intensity.
